In mail communication and logistic systems dedicated to distribution of physical items, there is frequently a problem regarding the monitoring of progress of items inducted into the system. Physical items that are deposited into distribution and delivery systems are referred to herein as “mail items”. Mail items may be letters, flats, packages, irregularly-shaped objects or any other physical items that are capable of being mailed within security and size constraints imposed by carrier systems. Such systems may be created and managed by public (Posts) or private (FedEx, DHL, UPS) entities are referred to herein as carrier distribution system or carrier systems.
Primary parties involved with carrier systems are mailer (sender), carrier (e.g., Post), recipient and sometimes several independent third parties that provide services to any of the primary three parties involved in mail communication system. Examples of third parties include mail contractors that provide mail creation or finishing services for mailers, quality of service monitoring parties, legal authorities called upon for dispute resolution between primary parties and other parties that perform auxiliary functions to creation, distribution and delivery of physical items. It should also be noted that in some implementations, certain functions of the carrier can be performed by other parties such as trusted suppliers or subcontractors. In this case, the carrier, for example may outsource all data processing activities associated with processing and providing track and trace information to mailers, recipients and other parties.
Mailers and recipients frequently require knowledge of the location of the mailed item at any given moment in time during the process of its distribution. Such locations could be any intermediate points along the distribution route or final delivery point. The information about location of mailed items can have a broad variety of uses including planning of operations, supply chain management, cash flow management etc. The system of providing such information is known by the name of “track and trace” and is employed by most carriers in the industrial world. The term “track” normally refers to the process of finding the location of a given mail item at a given moment in time when the item is believed to be under the system's control and is progressing through the system in the expected and predictable manner, while the term “trace” usually implies the process of finding the last known location of the (potentially) lost mail item. In any case, the service of “track and trace” involves three basic components and their associated processes.
The first process is the creation and application to the mail item of a unique and machine-readable mail item identifier.
The second process is the capturing of the mail item identifier information at different (normally) pre-defined points along the mail item distribution route within the carrier system including the point of delivery (either in a pre-determined receptacle that allows access to the mail item to the intended recipient (e.g., mail box or post office box) or directly into the hands of such recipient). Capturing information at different points is normally referred to as “events” in the life cycle of the mail item. Events are defined as “significant” happenings in the life cycle of the item whereby the term “significant” implies importance of the happening to any of the primary or auxiliary parties involved in the mail item creation, processing and delivery. Examples of the events significant for the carrier are the handing over of the item from the carrier facility to a transportation unit or from a carrier to another entity such as Governmental Customs Offices. Events significant to the mailer are, for example, the attempted delivery of the mail item to the recipient or the induction of the mail item into the carrier system. Events are normally codified and accompanied by additional informational elements known as “attributes”. Typical attributes of an event are its codified location and time stamp. Capturing the mail item identifier, events and its attributes is one of the important functions of the carrier.
The third process is providing access to events/attributes information to all interested parties, primarily to mailers and recipients.
The process of track and trace has evolved over the years and has been driven by private carriers desire to keep their customers informed while simultaneously upgrading the carrier's own management control system and service monitoring. As a result, all traditional track and trace systems evolved to be reasonable and economically effective systems for carriers, and cumbersome and not user-friendly systems for mailers and recipients. Specifically, in all traditional cases, the first step of creating a track and trace identifier for mail items involves the creation of the identifier information by a carrier and communication of such information to the mailer.
At the time the identifier information is created, it is unknown to the recipient and, thus, must be communicated to the recipient in a separate communication step in order to provide the intended recipient with the means of accessing track and trace information from the carrier. Furthermore, traditional methods of accessing track and trace information for mailers and recipients are also cumbersome and inconvenient. For example, in most of the cases, the recipient is notified by a physical post card about significant events (such as arrival of the mail item at carrier's delivery facility) or, in a more modern method, both the mailer and the recipient may have access to track and trace information through a carrier-maintained web site (typically data base of events and attributes). The latter method requires a significant amount of access management effort including password management and the like.
One of the problems of the prior art is that existing systems are inconvenient for the customer and economically inefficient, thus making useful services cumbersome to access and costly to use.
Another problem of the prior art is that existing systems preferences and access to delivery information are either unknown or ignored at the time of mail item creation.